Yuri
Yuri (ユリ''Yuri'') is one of the five main characters in Doki Doki Literature Club! and one of the five members of the Literature Club. Appearance Yuri is shown to express maturity and sophistication, and is noted to be extremely beautiful. She has long straight dark purple hair and light purple eyes, and she wears purple barrettes on both sides of her head, positioned upon long strands of hair close to her bangs. Her clothing is the standard warm gray blazer with a brown sweater vest over a white collared shirt with the collar slightly unbuttoned topped off with a red ribbon. She has a dark blue skirt, white knee-high socks, and white uwabaki slippers with sky-blue tips. When the player chooses to work with Yuri, she wears a beige turtleneck sweater with black leggings. The protagonist describes her movements as surprisingly elegant due to her long legs. Yuri is the tallest female character in the game, standing at 5' 5" (165 cm) in the game's concept stage, according to creator Dan Salvato. She is also the most physically developed, adding to her traits of maturity and insecurity. Personality Yuri is portrayed throughout the majority of the game as being shy, generous, polite, apologetic, very intelligent, mature, eloquent, and passionate about topics she is interested in, although she is also very insecure, awkward, and has a tendency to act slightly condescending and patronizing to mask her self-doubt. Her facade of passivity and level-headedness occasionally breaks, however, as Yuri does argue passionately and aggressively with Natsuki over their differing opinions on writing styles. Yuri has a deep desire to be liked by others and is afraid to speak her mind on matters as she believes it will make her seem unlikable. Due to her social ineptitude, she can be innocently insensitive, but once she realizes what she said could be considered rude, she almost immediately apologizes, repeatedly saying she did not mean it. As stated by the protagonist, Yuri likes to think before she says something. Yuri is the "shrinking violet" (a term to describe a character who prefers to blend in with the scenery than to attract unwanted attention) or "dandere" of the club members because of her constant apologetic nature. The attribution is also because of being shy to discussions beyond her category of interest, her interests being literature, horror, and general surrealism, which she examines and articulates expertly and encourages others to follow as well. Yuri's love of surrealism seems to be foreshadowing further events of the game, with Yuri's surrealistic eyes and the game's horrific nature after Sayori's suicide. Yuri prefers poetry that uses metaphorical symbolism and enjoys collecting unusual ornate knives, implicitly (in Act 1 at least) used for self-harm. Yuri takes great pride in her poetry and perceives her poetry as being superior to that of the other club members, especially Natsuki. According to Dan Salvato, this is a coping mechanism for her deep insecurity and self-doubt, convincing herself that she is the sophisticated, mature one and that her critics or rivals are immature and childish. This can make her seem arrogant and patronizing to those unfamiliar to her. This desire to seem intellectual and high-brow is reflected in her poetic style. Her poems are so full of metaphors and advanced language that the meaning is often obscured, or even lost. In Monika's Talk, Monika wonders whether Yuri is as passionate about certain topics (such as tea) as she makes out, or whether she is "just concerned about appearing sophisticated to everyone else." Yuri has trouble making and keeping friends, as she tends to come on too strongly, due to her intense desire to be liked. It is said that she used to be judged for her appearance and mannerisms, providing another possible explanation as to why she secludes herself to her introverted lifestyle. She is, however, a generous and giving person, exemplified by her giving a copy of "Portrait of Markov" to the protagonist and for bringing tea to the Literature Club to help soothe the mind and help stay focused during reading. Category:Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Doki Doki Literature Club! Characters Category:Japanese Characters Category:Humans